After watching them for a while, one of the ewes saw us move, and the sheep headed up and over the far side of the canyon. I was amazed how the big animals could traverse vertical rock faces with seemingly no effort, even the tiny lamb. The mature ram and lamb were the last to depart, and they looked back at us in a classic sheep pose from the far skyline.

We didn't see any other sheep that day, and only a couple of ewe groups and small rams on the second day. However, after the exciting first encounter my batteries stayed charged with anticipation. The wind was light and the air crisp as we headed out of camp on the third morning. I had a good feeling deep inside, and I truly believed my day had come.

As we made our way toward a large cliff line a couple of miles away, Ross pointed out a natural spring in a small draw below. Though in desert country, Ross explained, the ranch had an unusual number of springs, a key factor that contributes to the wealth of wildlife including mule deer, pronghorn, javelina and aoudad. We hadn't passed the spring by more than five minutes when Ross grabbed my arm, yanking me to the ground. As we topped a rolling hill, he spotted three sheep on a flat. He'd never seen aoudad on that part of the ranch and figured they must have been headed higher after coming to the spring to drink. We crawled a few yards, and sure enough, I could make out three beautiful rams in my 10x42 binocular even though they were 500 yards away.

We were in a great position. There was a draw that looked as if it would get us within 200 yards of the sheep. They were grazing, so we dropped into the draw and hotfooted it up to what we estimated to be the closest we could get to the trio of rams.

When we again located the sheep, they were in about the same spot, and there was a large rock and some brush about fifteen yards in front of us for cover. Ross said there were two huge rams and recommended shooting the one in the middle. He ranged the sheep at 204 yards as I prepared for the shot. The morning sun was in my scope, giving me a tough time with the glare.

I rested the crosshairs high on the middle sheep's shoulder. Little did I know that the middle sheep and the one on the left had switched positions while I was dealing with the glare. I slowly squeezed the trigger; the sheep reared up on his hind legs. The 180-grain AccuBond did its job. The Aoudad only went thirty yards.

Ross slapped me on the back saying "Good shot, but you shot the wrong sheep. Didn't you see them switch places just before you shot?" My heart almost stopped as Hunter told me that he thought I still had a good ram, but the two bigger ones were thirty-four and thirty-two inches in his estimation.

I forgot all about inches when we got to the downed ram. He was a beautiful 81⁄2-year-old ram with an incredibly long beard and leg chaps. We estimated him between 275 and 300 pounds, and I must say, I was in awe. Ross believed this ram better than he first thought and dug in his pack for a tape. The fine ram stretched to a bit over twenty-nine inches, but I didn't care if he was twenty inches. He was gorgeous; he was mine, and I knew he was going to look fantastic on my wall.

Likely, I'll never be able to hunt Stone or bighorn sheep. Their price tags are simply out of my reach, but I did get to experience a wild sheep hunt for only a fraction of that cost. This hunt was all I had hoped it would be with rugged terrain and beautiful scenery. I may not have the pocketbook for Dall or desert bighorn, but I can guarantee I'll be back to hunt free-ranging aoudad.